Over the summer, autumn and now into winter, working bees continue along the new Lake Okareka Walking Track—the section from the DOC camp back to Boyes beach. Monthly working bees are usually held on the first Saturday of each month. We have had volunteers from the New Zealand Air Force and also from ANZ Bank Fenton Street, Rotorua branch come to help with building the track. Hours of manual work have gone into clearing scrub, moving any valuable plants, and then shifting the topsoil or leaf litter or “duff” which in some places is quite deep, to get down to the Rotomahana mud layer. Then the track has been benched, and in some cases soil moved to make the track a better gradient, being mindful this section is being built to be wheel chair and push chair friendly. In the meantime, the DOC camp has once again proved to be a good earner over the summer building the bank account to help pay for some of the costs of creating the track—edging timber, track gravel, drainage pipes, geo textile cloth, etc. Further funding applications for the board walks and bridges will be made in the coming weeks. Thank you to everyone who has been coming to working bees over the past few months. We appreciate your support. This project will take a lot more time yet. We just have to be patient...